Monthly Archives

Monthly Archives for June 2003.

United Free Ticket Promotion

Register and fly 3 United roundtrips by September 30th (coach tickets can’t include a Saturday night stay) and earn a free roundtrip ticket. Up to 2 tickets can be earned this way.Naturally, the free ticket will not earn miles. Unfortunately, the free ticket cannot be upgraded. The ticket is good for the lower 48 states only.

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Hidden Cities, Hidden Headlines

News of the Supreme Court’s decision to permit a class action lawsuit to go forward against Delta and Northwest is being overblown. Headlines like “Delta, Northwest lose appeal” make it sound as though the court was inclined to agree with the plaintiffs on the merits. The Supreme Court has simply refused to intervene — and the Supreme Court rarely intervenes — to stop the suit which alleges that barriers to “hidden city ticketing” are illegal. (Hidden City Ticketing refers to when a passenger books an itinerary that takes them farther than their final destination but doesn’t take the last leg of their journey in order to receive a lower fare.) If the case reaches a jury, public anger against the airlines will be on the side of the plaintiffs. But the most likely outcome is…

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United’s Not-so-great Offer

The United Great Offer (offering bonus status miles for faxing competitors’ frequent flyer statements and flying marginal segments at fares other than the lowest) makes the news. What the story doesn’t cover is all of the confusion that the offer has wrought. It’s still unclear whether only marginal flight segments have to be at higher fares, or the initial flight segments that match previous flight history also. Noone at United seems to really know, and customer service continues to provide conflicting answers.

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The return of private screeners?

As a result of all of the incompetence and mismanagement at the TSA, the federal government is considering allowing some airports to return to private screeners next year. It’s still in the idea stage, and there’s opposition. Let’s just keep flooding the zone!

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The end of miles and the last man

Chris Woodyard sees sees the end of our obsession with miles because Fliers are under pressure from their employers to shop around for the lowest fare, regardless of carrier, making it more difficult to collect miles on a single airline. Airlines are slowly eroding the value of miles by raising award levels or making it more difficult to find flights to use miles. Low-fare carriers offer deep discounts on routes that make it easier and cheaper to just pay the fare rather than shell out miles for a trip. The points Woodyard raises are true. Miles are supposed to create brand loyalty for what is essentially a commodity product. In a down economy, businesses are forcing employees to choose based on price and — spurred by lowfare carriers — the airlines are obliging them. There…

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